Montana On My Mind

Douglas and I spent the last eight days in Montana. Well, that is not exactly true. I spent the last eight days in Montana and Douglas was supposed to. He abandoned me early to compete in the Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championship in Milwaukee, WI. Despite the fact that he was not there the entire time, I still enjoyed the trip immensely.

My aunt and uncle have been coming to Montana every summer for the past eight years. They have fallen in love with the area and always profess that your first visit to Montana is a life-changing experience. This year they invited us to go with them. Over the past week I have come to understand what they see in this land and am so grateful that they gave me this opportunity to get to know it as well.

The terrain is spectacularly beautiful. Every time I turned a corner, I was blown away all over again by the views. The pictures hardly do justice to the vastness and awesomeness of the topography. I was overwhelmed and inspired by the scenery that inspired me. Sitting to take in the views I felt awe and also a sense of peace invade me. It would take centuries for me to tire of this scenery.

Montana has been on my list of places to visit for a while. I had a feeling that I would love it, and that was correct. Besides enjoying the beauty of the land, there are many activities in which to participate. We did not get to do everything while we were here, but we enjoyed the activities we did.

The first day, we went zip lining. It was interesting to compare this experience with my recent zip line excursion in Costa Rica. The topography was vastly different. Although I enjoyed the experience in Costa Rica, it felt safer in Montana. I would recommend this activity for anyone visiting the area.

The following day, Douglas and I split up. He took a bike ride from the 320 Ranch, where we stayed, to Cowboy Heaven, near the top of Big Sky Mountain. It was a forty-eight mile ride that he finished in three hours.

I left early that morning with the rest of my family to look for wildlife and visit the town of West Yellowstone. I will write more about the animals later. West Yellowstone is a cute little town in Montana, near the border of Idaho and Wyoming. It is a touristy village, and we visited shops and had breakfast and lunch there. We also went to see an Imax movie about bears.

On Wednesday, we rented a couple of boats on Lake Hebgen. The weather was perfect, and I cannot imagine a more relaxing day. We toured the lake on the larger of the two boats, a three-pontoon craft. The sun was shining, and though the water was cold, I swam for quite a while and tubed as well.

My uncle took people fly fishing on the smaller boat. One of Douglas’ regrets is that he was not able to fly fish while he was here. You cannot do everything, however. We had to make a lot of decisions while we were here about what we were going to do and what we would have to leave for another trip. Trust me; we are already planning our next visit!

Thursday, Douglas and I visited Yellowstone National Park. It was Douglas’ first time in Wyoming. I am going to have to write about the park in another post, because it warrants one of its own. (Update: you can read it here.) I have been using so many superlatives in this post, but I really cannot emphasize enough the magnitude of Yellowstone. It was one of the great highlights of my life. You could spend a lifetime in that park and still not see everything.

Douglas left the ranch at 4:00 am on Friday. He missed a spectacular horseback ride that morning. We took a four-hour trip, riding up one mountain, crossing the range and then going down another mountain.

Buddy was my horse, and I loved him. He was a rebel who refused to stay on the beaten path. That was perfectly fine with me. I have blazed my own trail my entire life. Buddy trotted on and off, and I had a blast. I wish I could ride more frequently. Does anyone have a horse that they want to let me ride?

On Saturday, we went to Virginia City and Ennis. I was about an hour and a half hour ride from the ranch. These towns have preserved many of the old buildings from the gold rush days of the 1800’s. It was nice to walk around and see the shops.

The view along the way was as spectacular. I could not stop taking pictures.

Yesterday was our last day, and I slept in for the first time. When I finally got up and around, I went for a hike with the wife and daughter of the head wrangler at the ranch. We went about four miles.

The 320 Ranch was a wonderful place to spend a week. Everyone that works at the ranch was friendly. Since my uncle and his family have been coming here for so long and are treated like family by the ranch hands. We spent many an evening in the saloon, enjoying the company and laughing a lot.

I highly recommend Montana for a vacation. It was awesome to visit in the summer, and I will definitely return in the warm weather. However, I am also excited to come in the winter and experience all of the cold-weather activities. I particularly want to ski and ride on a dog sled.

So, have I convinced you to go to Montana yet?

If you would like to see more pictures, I will upload all of the pictures from my trip onto Facebook as soon as I can. You can like the Cape of Dreams page to view the pictures. Beware! There are over a thousand!

Happy Homemaking!